US pleads for calm after Turkish troops pursuing PKK enter Iraq

Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish guerrillas yesterday, as the US warned against any action that could further destabilise the region.

Ankara said its men had clashed with fighters of the separatist Kurdistan People's Party (PKK) in the Dohuk area, angering the Kurdish regional government and the authorities in Baghdad.

Turkey said the ground incursion was triggered when two PKK groups were spotted just across the border. Iraqi officials denied there had been any clashes and said 300 Turkish troops had entered unpopulated terrain near the frontier.

There was tension too over Sunday's Turkish attacks, when as many as 50 planes launched strikes against the rebels, the biggest such raid in years. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman. The PKK said two civilians and five rebels died.

Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region, cancelled talks in Baghdad with Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state.

"It is unacceptable that the US, in charge of monitoring our airspace, authorised Turkey to bomb our villages," said Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish regional government. Turkey says it received intelligence from Washington and the US opened up Iraqi airspace for its aircraft.

Rice said in Baghdad that the US supported Turkish efforts to crush the PKK but the air raid was "a Turkish decision". She added: "No one should do anything that threatens to destabilise the north."

But US military commanders in Iraq said they did not know Turkey was sending warplanes to bomb northern Iraq until the planes had crossed the border.

Commanders and diplomats in Baghdad told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that they were angered when they were told of Sunday's attack after it was already under way.

Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, insisted his country's only goal was to fight the PKK. "Iraq is Turkey's neighbour and we want to save the Iraqis from this trouble of terror," he said.